History & Archives

Opening Statement
It's Georgia week. This is the fourth time I've had a chance to go at them since I've been here. We've always had pretty close games. We won one close one and lost one close one. Even the year we were shutout we were down at their one-yard line a couple of times. We've had three close games. It's a big challenge as every week is in the SEC Eastern Division. It is one of the four or five big games at home this year. We have a big home schedule. We're looking forward to it. Hopefully we'll play a lot better than we did our last time out. Hopefully we'll take care of the ball better and our offense will perform efficiently. If we can do that, we can be in the game. We can't have the turnovers and bad plays that give the opponents extra chances.

As far as our quarterback play, there's a good chance both will play. I don't know how else to do but to get both of them ready. Whoever starts the game will have an excellent opportunity to maybe go the distance, and we'll have the other guy ready. Right now Chris and Tommy are performing sort of evenly. Statistically Chris is better, but we felt like Tommy potentially can do some things to give us a chance to win the game.

On the direction of the two programs after last year's Carolina win
Their team got a lot stronger and better as the season progressed. Unfortunately our team went the other way. This is a new team on both parts. I still believe we're a better team this year although offensively we haven't shown that.

On Georgia
Georgia really doesn't have any weaknesses on offense, defense or special team play. They're a very good team and well coached. Guys hustle and play hard all the time. They have a quarterback in his third year as a starter and have tremendous confidence in him, their running game and their passing game.

On Kenny McKinley's status
Kenny was not able to do anything yesterday. He probably won't do anything today. I'd say he's doubtful. When you severely pull a hamstring like he did, it's usually a two to three-week deal.

On quarterback decision-making
We need to get the ball out of the quarterback's hands quicker at times. You're not going to have perfect protection all day. You have to sidestep and throw it away sometimes...Guys are going to come free sometime. You have to accept that all around the country. They're going to blitz more. We're trying to teach our guys of doing a better job of getting rid of it.

On the defensive gameplan
We have to stop the run like always. That's the gameplan every week. You can't let Knowshon (Moreno) run all up and down the field. We have to get a bunch of guys up there and our defensive backs have to cover.

On Jared CookJared Cook is physically one of the best players in the country. There's no question with his speed and his size, he's got God-given ability. He's sort of a combination wide receiver, tight end guy.

On playing nationally ranked teams
We've been competitive in about all of our games. We haven't really gotten hammered too much through the years. We feel like we can play with anybody.

On the defensive performance through two games
Our defense has played pretty well. We're going to need them to play well to have a chance this week.